Rfalconcam Forum

As some of you may remember, Lou and I made a deal back in this thread:
http://rfalconcam.com/forum/index.php?topic=707.0
regarding this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ24oBaO56w
which hummingbird feeder I had incautiously admired.
The deal was that if he sent me a reasonable homemade facsimile of this cranially-mounted artifact as a Christmas gift, I would wear it and post images of myself doing so, forever destroying what reputation I might have left as a moral person.
On 4/22 I received a large box containing the following items (as well as succinct instructions that, in the interest of full disclosure, included off-color acronyms not suitable for posting on a family-oriented forum).
Further documentation to follow in subsequent reports.
Please notice that there are FIVE feeders, TWO of which resemble humongous strawberries.
As I understand, the glittery flower stickers are Dana's fault.

 :wow:   What a rush aye?!     :mbanana:

Way cool!  I might just have to borrow it...once you're all your hummingbirds are full!   :cool-045:

More more!!! :notworthy: :bow:

this is more or less what we're talking about here. For the record, the sunglasses served to hold the contraption up and balanced.

Your headgear is impressive!  Lou, you are guite the engineer!

Hahahahaha did you get any hummers?

Maybe when your not wearing it, you could hang it from the porch..

 Good job Lou & Dana

I think its kinda neat.  :wave:

Wow!  That is quite the impressive contraption I have seen in a very long time!   :surprise: :laugh:

Does it have a patent? Could be a winner. I can see us all wearing them.   :hysterical:

Darn tootin' it's a good job. It's totally stupid!

And very wearable and balanced, especially with sunglasses to help support it.
This was a trial run at Bong State Recreation Area (jokes on the name at your own risk; he was a WWII flying ace, 'nuff said) - a splendid huge managed prairie between Kenosha and Burlington, WI, where scores of tiny but anatomically perfect killer whales incubate swallow eggs in boxes (documented in a separate post) and there are a LOT of hawks. I saw FOUR huge RTHs playing, with the sun shining red through them. Plus one dead blue snake (I suspect I disturbed someone's dinner). Plus a bluebird (big score for me, I love them), herons, goldfinches, etc. Anyway, the bird feeders by the nature center get a huge variety of birds, and I have seen hummers there, but the center was closed so I couldn't ask if they had seen any recently. I also spent a certain amount of time assembling said moronic headgear for the first time, mixing up the red stuff, filling the five feeders, and, not to put too fine a point on it, farting around. So, to answer your question, Linda, no hummers, but through no fault of the birds'. 
I attracted some bugs, so what else is new.
I will do migration-related research and try more seriously at a later date.

There is a hummingbird festival in Western Kentucky around the first weekend of August, but basically anytime between early August and Labor day they see peak hummingbird numbers (often 200 a day).  It's at a visitor center at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area where they have a magnificent hummingbird garden and bunches of feeders to catch the little terrors on their way down the Mississippi flyway.  Your headdress could be quite a hit there, and could generate some sales for Lou, in case he'd like to go into the hummer-helmet business  ;).  It can be untolerably hot and humid here during August, so Lou would need to invent a way to air-condition your bike helmet.

Patti

migration is probably the only way I'd get more than one hummer-customer at a time, with how territorial they are, but this conjures up the image of 200 hummingbirds in rowdy, brawling queues at each of five dangling feeders, with me stuck in the center -- pretty nightmarish.
I could suffer hummer abrasions.
Add to that a little helmet-mounted fan...
But then the whole purpose of this is to make me look like an idiot, which I am usually more than willing to do, so maybe...;)

next they're gonna tell me that I myself am licensed premises when wearing the feeder helmet and that I need a permit to wear it...
http://fieldguidetohummingbirds.wordpress.com/2008/08/25/vampire-hummingbird-expert-urban-myth-remix/
btw a link in that article goes to another, at Live Science, entitled:
"Tree Shrew Sober Despite Drinking All Day."  Just sayin'.

 :hysterical:

Dale - Glad to see you following through on your end of the bargain. I love the pics. Thanks for letting us all share your adventures in the DMARH.  Hopefully, you'll attract a darned hummingbird with all those feeders hanging around your cranium!  And you're right..Dana did add the decals. 

Gayle..Engineer?  Nah - I don't have a left brain.  I actually didn't account for the weight of the hummingbird solution. Luckily, Dale figured out use of sunglasses to help prevent the hat from going too far forward! Hah!

Donna - no patent pending on the DMARH. (Dale change the name - she must have figured out my original name, The BFHH.)

Patty - I like the idea of adding an air conditioner. We don't want to outclass good old Roy Road too much though. I'll think about that though.

Okay Dale - thanks again. Looking forward to a successful venture!

Lou

Now that Patti has subjected herself to public humiliation (see report #2), I decided to complete my own: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itS5TvfvjTg
I did sit still for a while - this was at the end when I was getting antsy and worried about bees flying into my mouth!

Hah! Now that was great! The first time I watched the video, I had to laugh as you were sitting there trying to balance and steady the helmet while the feeders are all swinging around in various directions. I remember that from my own prototype experience.. LOL.  The second time that I watched the video though, I noticed the Mourning Dove in the background, calling out to its avian friends to come by and check out the crazy lady in the hat - and I kinda felt sorry for you .. for kind of putting you in that position. (Poor Dale..she just makes a little comment and that SOB Lou goes and posts a challenge!)

Okay, not really on the feeling sorry thing. But I do need to formally recognize that you have fulfilled your end of the bargain. Even if you didn't have any hummingbirds visit, your valiant attempts and the video exceeded all expectations.  You did a great service to the world and its inhabitants by helping to debug the BFHH2010. Looking forward to future adventures from fellow pioneers!

Lou

yeah, there was a terrific dove call, I noticed that. No apologies required, I loved it!!

Ah cripes. I guess all ya needs to do is tape a dang stick to yer head...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oAQXBNPkds

Lou

that's totally hilarious, Lou. But I think that he overdid the white tape on purpose - observers think he has a serious head injury and refrain from hurling abuse at him. I had no such defense.

Guess we were all doing it wrong. No wonder the Hummers ignored us :silly:
ginha